The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-01
A woMANs LODGING HOUSE.
Miss Grace H. Dodge and the Working
Girls Guilds.

MISS Grace Il. DOdge ana Cne working
Girls Guilds.
NEW York, April 50.-This is a kindly
world, good people, after all. A month ago,
or Whereabouts, | wrote you an account of
the scheme of seventy New York shop girls
who are making their wages yield them de
cent living by starting working woman's
cooperative hotel If could, would give
you peep into my poStman's bundle since.
Letters! They lie about in confusion ON my
desk this minute, punctuated by ink bottle,
pastepot and scissors; letters, yes, and an
offer of hard cash for the furtherance of the
enterprise, too.
On Monday morning a second lodging
house, to be managed by factory girls and
for the accommodation of factory girls, will
open its doors, and there is a prospect of a
half dozen more such common sense expert
ments in the fall The New York working
girl is waking up All peSsimistic reports of
the helplessness and hopelessness of her con-
dition to the contrary Notwithstanding, she
shows a noticeable increase in practical in
telligence, and she owes it in a large meas
ure to the influence of a half dozen women,
of whom the most active, / suppose, is Miss
Grace H. Dodge.
To the public Miss Dodge is known as a
granddaughter of William z. Dodge and
the younger of the two representatives of
her sex, chosen presumably for her interest
IN manual training, on the School Board
There are some thousands of working girls
scattered throughout the city, however, who
took her appointment by Mayor Hewitt as
an honor personal TO themselves and who
Nntch the newspapers with a jealous eye to
q every word of criticism or approval that
&1r President receives. Miss Dodge is two
three years on the girlish side of 30, tall,
ksh-cheeked and brown haired.
Late yesterday afternoon found my way,
her invitation, to modest house in West
street, where comparatively
10y visitors aside from regular habitues are
admitted. Ir was a cheerful looking place
$50 far as a block house can be cheerful
even from the outside, with its apronful of
turf scrupulously kept, its brasses scrubbed
TO eclipse its neighbors and its curtains
x E'awing in the wind. Six o'clock had struck
n bevy of girls released from the fec
ies came just behind us springing up the
s. ps This trim little establishment is the
AdQuarters of one of New York's pioneer
liking girls societies, and here from q
4re to a couple of hundred shop girls,
ther workers, manicures, hairdresserS
tacco shippers, buttonhole makers, factory
nds, and even two or three school teachers
ndezvous every night.
This Thirty-eighth street clubhouse is the
ne, indeed, of assemblages as unique as
z fr gather in New York. The barriers be-
zen head work and hand work, between
de and trade, between different
Rdes of intelligence and occupation are
holly broken down in common spirit of
s Operation for the industrial good of
trnen. 1t was in Higgins carpet factory
famous for its strikes-that this demo
Nfic organization started, Miss Dodge
keting knot Of bright girls for discussion
kpractical questions among the looms after
Jars From the factory her class, as it
IN called itself, graduated to the tenement
Al. Il
enbers by turns. When its size and its
Mirage had grown to the point of bold
1parture the guild adopted a constitution
\ vi settled itself in the Thirty eighth street
use as home of its own.
70 was busy amateur milliner who open
the door to us, a straw bonnet and mass
Sbright ribbons in her hand. Girls were
lhTying upstairs and downstairs, and
There was a sound of fresh voices over the
place. Their reception room is the JOY of
these working girls lives. Ii was bare
enough when they came into it, and the
early meetings in the clubhouse were held on
bare floors and with paucitY of tables and
chairs. Time, patience, ingenuity and hard
earned pennies, saved sometimes out Of a
wage of S. a week, have worked a surpris-
ing change. There have been windfalls of
luck, too. An invalid sailing to Europe for
q term of years lent some pretty bits Of
furniture instead of having them stored.
the girls some talks on pictures, and left be-
hind a couple of his own sketches as
souvenirs. With piece Of self-denial here
and gift there, the girl from the tenement
house can educate her eyes with parlor as
dainty, if not so expensive, as any lady on
the avenue.
This reception room one evening in the
week is the headquarters of the woman
physician, whom the girls consult about
their bodily ills Behind it is the library,
where books, newspapers, letter writing
and social chat collect a group nightly
There are a couple of classrooms and a
kitchen, where lessons i'm cookery. dress
making, millinery singing and First Aid
to the Injured hold their sessions on differ
ent evenings, by turn Once a week Miss
Dodge gives the club an informal talk on
some practical, everyday topic, ranging
from "health" and nutritious foods" TO
what to read the uses of money!
parliamentary rules and tools" Lee
tnvs and concerts offer themselves now
and then through the winter without
price
The financial side of the working girls
club has proved less troublesome than might
have been supposed. Tho REM of the club
house is 1925 a month, but the upper rooms
are lea To ioogeTs, which brings the cost 10
the girls themselves down 10 about So.
Dies of DC. a month from 200 members,
something more than pay the bills, leaving
fund toward the classes, for which, in
some cases, tuition fees are charged beside.
The rooms are open every evening, the girls
happening in and out, as they choose. Tues
day night sees the gathering Of the clans:
but ii Is bard 60 dropin on any occasion and
not find rea,ling and writing, or in summer
the making of bouquets for the sick going
nn The girls are gaining In two directions;
they get broader outlook on life and grow
practical and bilsiness-like in everyday
Hffairs The factory hand sees something Of
beauty. and she reckons her wages, as one Of
them told me the other day, in bread and
butter. instead Of cream cakes. She learns